One of the Milton Keynes double murder victims was stabbed 47 times as he tried to flee his attackers, court hears

A court heard how the two 17-year-old partygoers were stabbed to death by a masked gang in revenge for a "humiliating" woodland beating in which a teenage boy was stripped naked in an attack which was videoed and put on social media.

The double murder happened at a 17th birthday party in Emerson Valley in October last year.

Horrific details of the brutal knife attacks in which childhood friends Dom and Ben were killed and two other young men were critically injured were revealed at the start of a trial in which five youths - two of them juveniles - are charged with double murder.

One defendant, Earl Bevans, dramatically changed his plea to murder at the start of the trial but the other four remain on trial.

The jury at Luton Crown Court was told that one of the accused juveniles was now 17 years old but was in fact the 14-year-old who had been stripped and beaten in the woodland attack video.

Prosecutors said that the "humiliation" he suffered suffered was one of the catalysts for the murderous ambush and killings which happened at the birthday party three years later.

The jury was told that there were two rival gangs involved, one from Bletchley and one from Westcroft. The Bletchley gang, which included the juvenile beating victim, had found out about the other gang attending the party through a tip-off by someone who was there.

They decided to carry out the "armed, co-ordinated group ambush," wearing face coverings including a Guy Fawkes mask, the jury heard.

Earl Bevans admitted killing “best friends” Dom Ansah and Ben Gillham-Rice in the targeted attack on the night of October 19 last year, the court heard. He also admitted two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent on other teenage party guests, Ryan Brown and Tom Honhold.

The 23-year-old was part of the West Bletchley-based B3 gang.

Four others - Clayton Barker, aged 20 years, Charlie Chandler, aged 22 years, the 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy, who were from Milton Keynes - deny the same charges and are on trial.

Charlotte Newell QC, opening the case for the prosecution, said the party at the centre of the killings was a girl’s 17th birthday party, held at her home in Archford Croft in Emerson Valley.

Ms Newell said: “That party was invaded by these defendants together with Earl Bevans in an armed co-ordinated group ambush upon young men they knew or believed to be at present at the event and with whom there was ongoing hostility. The result was that two young men lost their lives and two more were wounded.

“The defendants are all members of or associated with members of the West Bletchley based B3 gang. The five defendants had received a tip off that members of the rival M4 gang were present and they planned a violent attack upon them.”

All five defendants had travelled together by taxi to the scene where, with masks and weapons, including a large machete or “Rambo” knife, they had jumped the fence into the cul-de-sac party house’s garden while one of their number blocked the escape route at the front door the court heard.

Ms Newell added: “The male party goers were targeted and the attack upon them was immediate and ferocious, they had little or no time to react and little or no chance of protecting themselves.

“Within seconds of the arrival of the defendants group one young man was dead, two had been sliced with a knife or knives causing serious but mercifully not fatal injuries and a fourth was running for his life.

“He however was caught and subjected to a frenzied attack in which he received a very large number of wounds as a result of which he too lost his life.”

Ben Gillham-Rice had been in the lounge when the attackers burst in and was stabbed six times, including once in the chest, the weapon penetrating his heart and causing him to slump into a chair, death coming almost instantly, the jury heard.

Dom Ansah was “a particular focus of the defendants’ attention” and after he slipped while fleeing into the street, he was repeatedly sliced and stabbed while on the ground, leaving him with 47 injuries, including shoulder, arm, leg and abdomen injuries, one which pierced his lung, Ms Newell told the courts

Brave partygoers and paramedics at the scene tried to treat the boy, who was transported to hospital where he rapidly deteriorated within hours. But he first told his mother that “B3 were responsible” before his life slipped away and he was pronounced dead, the prosecutor said.

Clayton Barker and one of the juveniles was recognised by other people at the party, who they were known to, and caught on CCTV and dash cam footage, which was shown to the jury.

Ms Newell said: “The group arriving at the party unannounced could not have known what resistance they may meet but they had the confidence that they could take and maintain the upper hand by utilizing the element of surprise and by arming themselves.

“It is inconceivable that anyone approaching that property, faces concealed by masks or balaclavas, in an armed group to carry out a surprise revenge attack which was executed in a co-ordinated and deadly fashion could have been in any doubt that the intention of it was to kill or cause really serious harm.

“Given the overwhelming weight of the evidence that each defendant was present, it is perhaps no surprise that no accused now disputes that he travelled to Archford Croft together with his co-defendants and the issues for you are their actions and state of mind of each of the remaining four defendants during the events with which you are concerned.”

The jury heard that a “humiliating” video of the 17-year-old boy defendant being stripped and beaten in woodland had been widely circulated on social media by the deceased victims, sparking the revenge attack.

The prosecutor said two incidents served as a “catalyst” for the quadruple stabbing, including one on September 7 2017, where the 17-year-old boy defendant was assaulted, stripped and taunted in woodland near Westcroft, Milton Keynes by two boys, one of whom was Dom Ansah.

Ms Newell said: “This had been videoed which was widely shared on social media and the footage was present on Dom Ansah’s handset downloaded after his death.

“Plainly the incident and the wide sharing of it would have been humiliating and the Crown suggest that in addition to the generalised animosity between the gangs this was a personal grudge held by the boy.”

The other boy, aged 16 years, was stabbed in the buttocks, in another incident which was linked to the events.

“The Crown suggests therefore that the defendants had themselves a motive for the attacks at Archford Croft or knew of the bad blood such that, when the time came, they were willing to act upon it in the knowledge that action would involve serious violence,” Ms Newell said.

The jury was told that the 17-year-old youth had made a rap song bragging about the murders of the two boys and said the victims had “deserved it” after the stabbing, because of the humiliating woodland attack they had subjected him to when he was just 14 years old.

Ms Newell added: “He had been the victim of the particularly unpleasant and humiliating attack in September 2017 when he was 14 years old during which he was beaten and stripped.

“At least part of it was recorded on a phone being held by a black male and with a voice heard on the recording accusing him of “snitching on his block” and “riding out” on the speaker. That video had widely been shared on social media.

“After the killing of Ben Rice and Dom Ansah and the stabbing of Tom Honhold and Ryan Brown, the boy bragged as to how he had stabbed and killed the males and that they deserved it because of what they had done to him.

“He, or at least his voice, was recognised by one of the partygoers as a male who entered the property during the attacks and he was also to confess to his part in the killings in a rap recovered from a mobile phone seized from an address of one of his associates on October 30.”

The jury was to be shown music videos filmed by both gangs which were said to show threats and animosity between them and involved both the defendants and the two murdered boys.

Ms Newell said: “Evidence of ties to one or the other of those gangs and awareness of the hostility between them include videos uploaded to YouTube on November 19 2018 entitled “#B3w C.Crashit – Why’d we lie (music video)” featuring, the Crown suggests, Clayton Barker, and the two anonymous boys and another video, an M4 production, also uploaded to YouTube on April 7 2019 entitled “#M4 Paperboylez – Viol£nce (official video) and featuring Dom Ansah and Ben Gillham-Rice.

“The lyrics are in urban slang and a glossary of terms has been provided to assist with interpretation. In short, those featuring in the video proudly reference gangs and gang rivalry and glorify the use of knives to cause serious injury.”

Witnesses at the party saw the defendants wearing a terrifying array of masks, including a skull mask and an anonymous mask, also known as a Guy Fawkes mask, to carry out the “post code war” attack.

The birthday party was described to the jury as a typical teenage event featuring, at its height, nine girls and seven boys, drinking, smoking and drug use, dancing and disco lights.

Ms Newell told how the girl’s mother and grandmother had made themselves scarce so the party could go ahead in the smart cul-de-sac home, on condition that that the girl’s older sister play a supervisory role. As the party started to thin out, witnesses in the conservatory saw the defendants rushing towards the house, Ms Newell explained.

“Without warning four males with their faces covered walked at speed into the conservatory from the garden. This was a shocking and fast-moving event which was completely unexpected.

A witness had recognised the voice of the person in the Guy Fawkes mask as the anonymous 17-year-old youth, when he grabbed her and said: “do you want me to f***ing stab you?”

Although the youth tried to disguise his voice, the witness knew he had attended classes with her at school, the court heard. He had threatened the girl witness not to “snake on us” as he and his co-defendants left the scene, having killed Ben Gillham-Rice.

Witnesses described “blood everywhere” in the living room where Ben lay slumped and dead on an armchair, as one of the girls tried to give him CPR until paramedics arrived.

All of the four defendants gave a "no comment" interview to police when they were arrested, the court heard.

High Court Judge Mr Justice Spencer warned jurors to ignore people standing outside Luton Crown Court chanting that the defendants were innocent, before the opening of the prosecution case started.

Charlie Chandler, of Fitzwilliam Street, Bletchley, Clayton Barker, of Surrey Road, Bletchley, and the two anonymous juveniles all deny two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

The trial continues today.